Plant This, Not That

This is a bit tongue in cheek… of course, you can grow anything you like. These are ideas for what to grow/plant at this time of year, if you missed out on the cool spring temps.

A wooded raised vegetable bed with kale, garlic chives, carrots, calendula, and sunflowers growing in a beautiful mish mash. — *Curly kale in the bottom right corner, dinosaur kale in the center. Surrounded by calendula and garlic chives.*

Kale not Spinach

If you missed the March/April planting window, it is too late to grow spinach now. Spinach does not like heat, it tends to bolt (go to seed) when temps hit the 20’s (60’s °F).

Instead, sow some kale seeds or pop in a 6 pack of kale. While kale loves cool weather and even tolerates snow just fine, it can also withstand summer temps. Get it planted and established before it gets too hot and it will grow nicely all the way till winter.

A bunch of purple and white turnips on a wooden bench. — *My turnip haul from a few year’s back, on the ngp acreage.*

Turnips not Radishes

While both prefer cool temps, turnips will handle the early summer weather longer/better than radishes will. They are also more versatile.

Radishes will produce yummy pods (kind of like small pea pods) when they bolt, that taste even better than the radishes do. I often grow them just for the pods.

A large clump of flowering chives growing in a raised garden bed, behind a smaller bed full of flowers. Tall Verbascum flowers in the background, and bright marigolds in clay pots.

Chives not Spring Onions

As with the others, the spring onions prefer cooler temps, should have been sown a few weeks ago. You can certainly still sow them in a part-sun location throughout the summer, but spring or fall are the best times.

Chives, on the other hand, are perennial. They will grow in all temps. They are amazing in spring time, with their blossoms.

Flowering broccoli that has bolted, with orange Gem Marigolds, lettuce, cabbage, and kale all growing in the same bed. — *Bolting broccoli growing in the same bed as the red cabbages. Lettuces, gem marigolds, kale, and celery growing in the same bed. This is also from my ngp greenhouse garden.*

Cabbage not Broccoli

Broccoli will quickly bolt when the temps get into the low 20’s C (75°F) whereas cabbage will keep right on growing through the summer months.

Ps, keep your bolting broccoli around for a while. The bees love it, it is a great pollinator favourite, it look pretty in the garden, plus you can eat those blossoms, too.

Pole beans growing along string lights in a garden, with a wooden fence in behind. — *Beans growing along my string lights – a happy accident : )*

Beans not Peas

Beans are summer veggies. They thrive in warmth and sunshine. Plant after spring frosts are over, in a full sun location. Bush beans are very fast growers and producers, whereas pole beans tend to take several weeks longer to start producing.

Peas prefer to be direct sown in cool soil, can handle frosty temps. Grow them in a partial shade location and keep well watered if growing them in summer.

Purple kohlrabi and yellow Zahara zinnias growing in a garden bed with a gravel pathway behind them. — Purple kohlrabi growing with yellow Zahara zinnias in my late summer acreage garden.

Rutabagas not Kohlrabi

Kohlrabi matures quickly and, as with all the others, prefers cool soil. Plant in early spring or late summer for a quick crop in just 45 to 60 days.

Rutabagas, on the other hand, are started in mid-summer so that they can grow while the soil is warm but finish off in the cooler late summer/early fall temps.

Sweet peas flowering on a trellis, a row of cabbages growing beside a row of calendula for companion planting. Kale and more flowers in another bed at the back.

Though a wee bit tongue in cheek, I hope this inspires you to try growing a few different veggies this summer ~ Tanja

The Marigold Potager – A Zone 3 Prairie Garden